The present invention relates to improved dough products. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved dough for pizza crust and a method for making the same.
Today's standards for manufactured dough products and in particular pizza dough products are high. The manufactured products are expected to rival hand made or pizzeria quality crusts. The marketplace desires, if not expects, pizza crusts to be “self-rising” or naturally rising. To be naturally rising, the dough must maintain live yeast that will consume sugars upon baking to produce the carbon dioxide (“CO2”) gas pockets that make the dough expand or “rise”. To maintain live yeast, the manufacturer must control any heating of the dough so that it does not increase to 160° F. (71° C.), at which point the yeast rapidly dies.
Manufacturing dough products at low or ambient temperatures is difficult because the dough is moist and tacky and tends to adhere to whatever surface it contacts. This makes transferring the dough from one manufacturing step to another cumbersome and expensive. For instance, “cold-pressing” pizza dough is one known process for making formed, e.g., circular, pizza crusts. Cold pressing, however, requires each dough ball to be supported in a shaped pan, indexed under a press, and compressed. Removing the non-heated, compressed dough from the pan is difficult. The dough wants to stick to the pan. In many processes, the dough is heavily oiled, which adds cost, complexity and calories to the dough preparation. The pans also deform during the cold pressing process and must therefore be replaced periodically.
To overcome the problems associated with cold pressing, manufacturers have added heat to the pressing process. The heat imparts improved release characteristics to the dough product, however, the pizza crust has now been “hot pressed”. As stated above, if the dough is heated to or above 160° F. (71° C.) for any significant length of time, the heat kills most or all of the yeast, whereby the dough no longer rises when finally cooked. If the dough is heated above 140° F. (60° C.) for any significant length of time, the dough becomes partially baked or “par-baked” as commonly termed in the industry. While “par-baked” dough products or pizza crusts will naturally rise to a certain extent, it is known that if first frozen and then refrigerated, par-baked crusts will no longer naturally rise.
Moreover, pressing a dough product to form a desired shape and thickness, whether cold or hot, has drawbacks. In many pressing operations, clearances or spaces between mating die plates, through machining or by design, can extrude or flash small amounts of dough around the edge of the desired shape. This is sometimes called “feathering,” and it provides a clear indication that the crust has been manufactured. In some operations, dough leaking through die plates is severe enough that it must be collected and either placed back into a dough hopper or discarded.
Compression adds cost to and degrades the shape and predictability of the dough product. Compressed dough even after proofing is dense and its ultimate shape is less predictable than if the dough has not been compressed. Cutting and forming a dough piece or dough ball to be molded or compressed requires complicated and costly mechanical devices. Squeezing and flattening a dough ball into a desired shape will not produce as fine or as predictable a shape as would cutting or stamping a shape from an uncompressed sheet of dough.
Simply providing a raw dough product that has been cut into a desired shape does not provide a viable solution either. As stated above, raw dough is tacky and difficult to manufacture. It is also desirable to provide a dough product that has been properly proofed or developed. “Proofing” develops the dough by causing the yeast to begin to react and produce CO2 leavening gas. During this process, the yeast culture grows using natural sugars such as dextrose for nutrients. The CO2 gas causes the raw dough to increase in volume. The leavening process also improves the flavor and texture of the dough product.
Moreover, proper proofing at a desired temperature and humidity avoids premature activation of the yeast and other leavening agents commonly found in dough products. Subjecting raw, ambient temperature dough to too high a temperature may cause premature activation of the leavening agents. Premature activation may also cause the crust to crack. Otherwise, when a consumer attempts to bake the crust, it may cause the crust to crumble.